Chapter 40

Then Ryan said of a sudden, “Your dad was a dick.”

“Yes. Right up to the end.” Ted sighed. “But it’s no excuse for me to be the same. The opposite, if anything. Sadly, Wally missed the memo.”

“He tries. Sometimes,” Ryan ventured, though he looked doubtful.

“He’s a spoiled shit, and I’m sure him gifting us this trip has an ulterior motive of some sort.” Ted rolled his eyes. “He’s amazed that I don’t seem to care. That Race is gone.”

He hadn’t meant for that to pop out, but, well, there it was.

Ryan shrugged. “Why would you?”

Ted looked to him, searching for irony, but there was none. The sun reflected prettily in Ryan’s bright eyes; his face was statuesque and bronze and sun-dappled and serious. Ted asked, “Do you mean that?”

“Yeah.” Ryan caught his gaze and made a face. “I mean, if you wanted to mourn the father he might’ve been, I’d get it. But you probably never spent time dwelling on shit you couldn’t have from him. Like Wally probably did.”